Lady Vashj (tactics)
:This article is about the in-game raid boss. For character biography and Warcraft III appearances, see Lady Vashj. Lady Vashj is the final boss of Serpentshrine Cavern in Coilfang Reservoir. She used to be a quest mob for attunement to Mount Hyjal, and it was necessary to kill all other bosses in SSC to gain access to her. Both isn't true anymore (since 2.4), and she now also drops three Tier 5 helm tokens (instead of two). Abilities All mobs in this fight (including the Lady) are tauntable. Lady Vashj * Basic melee - Normal 3,000, 4,000-6,000 crushing on plate * Shoot - A ranged ability that hits for 4,000-5,500 damage, used only if nobody is in melee range * Multi-Shot - A ranged ability that hits a target and 4 surrounding people for 6,500-7,500 damage * Shock Burst - Randomly deal about 9000 nature damage to her current target with a 5 sec stun, drop aggro during the stun * Entangle - A root ability used on random targets in a 15 yard radius, immobilize for 10 seconds and 500 damage per tick * Static Charge - debuff doing about 2000 damage per tick to its target and anyone within 5 yards for 15 sec * Forked Lightning - Random bolts of lightning that hit for 2,300-2,600 nature damage in a frontal cone (Phase 2 only) Enchanted Elemental Quite a lot of these non-elites spawn during Phase 2 * 7700 HP * Increase Lady Vashj's damage output by 5% if they reach her Tainted Elemental Spawns every 50 seconds during Phase 2 * 7700 HP * poison spit for 3,000 nature damage plus 2,000 damage every 2 seconds * immune to frost damage * doesen't move * despawn after 15 seconds * Drop a tainted core when killed Coilfang Elite One elite spawns every 45 seconds during Phase 2 * 175000 HP * hits for about 5k on plate, cleave for over 7.5k Coilfang Strider Every 60-70 seconds one Strider spawns during Phase 2 * 175000 HP * hits for 8k on plate * Mind Blast for 3k damage * very frequent AoE Fear in an 8 yard radius for 5 sec, 150% run speed during fear Spore Bats These spawn only during Phase 3 * Toxic Spores - Poison cloud AoE for 1,500 nature damage every second to anyone who stands in it Strategy The fight consists of three phases. Phase 1 and 3 are the same, except for the spore bat adds in phase 3. Phase 2 is the real test of a raids ability to work together - every single raid member is important, and has ample opportunity to cause a wipe. Positioning and Start Everybody gathers at the buff spot, usually the entrance. The MT runs in and grabs aggro. Healers must pre-cast on the MT as he's pulling, because he takes a lot of damage right from the moment he aggroes. As the tank is moving in, everyone spreads to their Phase 1 Group Positions, around Vashj on top of the stairs, and starts DPS. Phase 1 Basically tank and spank phase until she's at 70%. Damage dealers should be careful not to draw aggro, there's no need to hurry in this phase. The only problems are caused by her special attacks. If the Main Tank gets rooted the following helps: *An off-tank takes over (remember, she can be taunted) *Use Free Action Potions and/or Blessing of Freedom *Druid tanks can shapeshift out of roots One Shaman should be in the MT group and permanently keep a Grounding Totem up in order to nullify the Shock Bursts. Handling Static Charge If the mod BigWigs is used, static charge targets will get a skull raid icon. This makes it easier for other raid members to get out of their way. Persons with the debuff should move to the outer ring and try to stay away from everybody else. They also need to be healed. If the Static Charge is cast on Melee DPS, that person either moves to an empty part of the inner ring, with everyone else staying away from him, or he moves all the way to the outer ring and waits there till the effect is over. Use whichever is best in the given situation or to your preference. If the Main Tank gets the Static Charge, he moves to the middle and all other melee classes should stay away from him till the debuff is over. Alternatively, an offtank can take over and the MT proceeds like any other melee DPS with the debuff. The main goal of Phase 1 is to keep everybody alive. Even a single death in this phase can easily mean a wipe later on. Phase 2 At 70% she runs to the middle of her platform and surrounds herself in a shield making her invulnerable. To take down the shield the 4 Shield Generators around her must be deactivated, by using a Tainted Core (from the Tainted Elementals) on each of them. During this phase, four different types of mobs spawn. The bulk are Enchanted Elementals, but roughly once per minute one of each of the three other types appears. The Enchanted Elementals spawn at the bottom of the stairs at multiple points around the circle, and will slowly make their way toward Vashj. They must all be killed before they reach her. It's a good idea to have the Coilfang Elites tanked and killed by the melee group. The Coilfang Striders must be kited and killed with DoTs. When a Tainted Elemental spawns, they have to be killed within 15 seconds (lest they despawn). After the kill, the Tainted Core must be quickly looted. It causes the person carrying it to be paralyzed, but it can be thrown to a friendly target by using it. If a player with a core activates one of the 4 generators holding up Vashj's shield, that generator will be shut down. When all 4 generators are shut down, phase 3 begins. Positioning and Start There should be about 3 people on each side of the stairs - North, West, East and South: 2 ranged DPS and 1 Healer. All tanks and melee DPS stay in the center, waiting to grab the Coilfang Elites. Vashj will constantly use her Forked Lightning spell, hitting people in a 60 degree arc in random directions. Nothing can be done about this damage except simply healing it up. It is not affected by range or line of sight. Enchanted Elementals Enchanted Elementals spawn from all sides of the stairs. The 2 DPS/1 Healer group on each stair need to kill the elementals there. Ranged DPS are best in killing these Elementals, chasing them down with melee DPS takes too long. An affliction warlock should be able to kill one elemental using agony/corruption/siphon with no assistance before it can ever get to Lady Vashj. Coilfang Elite These mobs should be announced on Ventrilo/Teamspeak, grabbed by the tank, and moved to the inner circle. Hunters can be a great asset here by misdirecting them to a tank. The melee group should kill each before the next one spawns. Coilfang Striders These need to be kited. The usual techniques work fine. The kiting should take place along the center of the outer ring. It's a good idea to have a lot of DoTs on the strider. The damage dealers (and even the priests) from the stair groups should all put DoTs on the strider whenever it comes near them. Make sure the Strider is slowed enough. All classes should use whatever means (mages should spam slow, shamans use frost shock, CoEx from Warlocks, Paladins can Hammer it whenver it gets close). Of course, the kiter must not wear Salvation. Tailors should bring nets. Tainted Elementals Killing the tainted elementals is a very high priority. Everybody close to it must abandon all other elementals and kill the Tainted Elemental as fast as possible. If Tainted Elementals despawn before being killed more than twice, the fight will most probably be a wipe because the extra Elites and Striders will be too much. After the Tainted Elemental is dead, the Tainted Core must be looted. It can be thrown to a friendly target by using it for about 60 yards, within line of sight. The looting player should pass it to somebody up the stairs, and that person passes it to someone close to an active Shield Generators. There it can be used to deactivate a generator. A popular way of handling the Tainted Cores is to have one melee damage dealer stay close to an still active generator. The looting player throws to the healer atop the stairs, the healer then passes to the generator guy. Voice communication helps in coordinating the handling of the cores. It can be helpful to have an off-tank designated as "Elemental Cleanup", watching out for any normal Elementals that get too close to Vashj. When a Tainted Elemental spawns, the "Elemental Cleanup" announces where it is, runs over to help kill it quickly, and loots the core. An alternative is to have each melee DPS class assigned to one section of the stairs. They kill Coilfang Elites, but about 8 seconds before a Tainted is due, they run to their assigned section to help with the Tainted Elemental. If the Tainted is in the melee's section, have them help kill it. If the Tainted isn't there, they go back to the elites. For every Shield Generator switched off, Vashj will lose 5% of her health. The phase ends when the 4 generators are down and Vashj is at 50% health. It's advisable to control the moment when the last generator is switched off, delay until about 12 seconds to the next Strider spawn. This will maximize the time to kill the elite adds before Lady Vashj goes live. As a rule, there should be at most a half dead Strider, a full naga, and a nearly dead naga left over at the start of phase 3. Make sure the Core holder knows to pop the last lamp no later than 10 seconds before the Strider is due to spawn. The Bigwigs timers are somewhat inaccurate and the Striders are actually "up" long before they appear. Phase 3 This is basically Phase 1 again, with a twist - Spore Bats start to spawn. They come slowly at first, but gradually their number increases to the point where it becomes impossible to avoid the AoE poison. This usually occurs at around four minutes into the Phase. At first, all remaining phase 2 adds must be killed. During the first few minuts of Phase 3, the spore bats can be controlled by two hunters or warlocks dedicated to killing them. When they become too many to handle the Spore Bat killers should switch to Vashj. The top of the west stairs is a good position from which to kill the Spore Bats. In effect, the Spore Bats are sort of an Enrage timer. Knowing how to avoid the poison patches, and having a skilled tank keeping her on the move can make quite a difference to the lethality of this "enrage". Class Assignments Tanks - Stay on Vashj in phase 1 and 3. Take the Coilfang Elites in phase 2 (be quick - they can one-shot clothies). Melee DPS - Maul Vashj in phases 1 and 3. In phase 2, kill the Coilfang Elites (and - depending on the chosen strategy - watch a stair section for Tainted Elementals). Ranged DPS - In phase 1, same as Melee DPS. In Phase 2, 4-6 ranged damage dealers are needed in the stair groups, all others DPS the Coilfang Elite and Strider. All ranged DPS should remember to DoT the Strider as much as possible. In Phase 3, finish off the Elite and Strider. The rest is the same as Melee DPS. Healers - In Phase 1, all healers focus on the MT, he takes very high burst damage. When other raid members take damage, only one or two healers should divert their attention from the tank. In Phase 2, one healer should be assigned to each stair group. All healers should take care of the kiter when he passes them. In Phase 3, healing is the same as in Phase 1, but it will be a lot more intense. Useful Macros If your target is in range, toss the core at him/her and whisper to him/her that he now has the core. Also, tells the raid who now has the core. If your target is out of range, whispers him/her to get closer and pings your location on the minimap. (Note that if you don't have the Tainted Core, you will just tell your target to get closer.) /use Tainted Core /run f=SendChatMessage w="WHISPER"c="Tainted Core"t="target"u=UnitName(t)if IsItemInRange(c,t) 1 then f("You have the "..c,w,nil,u)f(u.." has "..c,"RAID")else f("Can't throw core at you. Get close!",w,nil,u)Minimap:PingLocation(0,0)end Other guilds use a simpler macro: /use Tainted Core /y <------- TAINTED CORE TO: %t ! ! ! /s <------- TAINTED CORE TO: %t ! ! ! /script SendChatMessage("!!! YOU HAVE THE CORE !!!", "WHISPER", "Common", UnitName("target")); For netting striders and notifying the kiter with agro. /use Netherweave Net /script SendChatMessage(string.format("Netting %s's Strider!",UnitName("targettarget")),"YELL"); /script SendChatMessage("Netting your Strider!", "whisper",nil,UnitName("TargetTarget")); This will also work for the Pally stun, just replace /use with /cast Hammer of Justice If you're having trouble getting DPS targeted and killing the Tainted Elementals, have them use this macro: /cleartarget /focus /targetexact Tainted Elemental /focus nodead /cast exists, nodead Some Spell /targetlastenemy This will set the Tainted Elemental to your focus target and cast "Some Spell" on it if it is alive. If it is not alive, it will keep your current target if it is an enemy (healers shouldn't use this if they count on targeting to heal). Note that if the Tainted is out of range or LoS, you'll still get error messages, but at least you'll have a focus target so that you can go find it. Loot First kills Quotes Intro: * Water is life. It has become a rare commodity here in Outland. A commodity that we alone shall control. We are the Highborne, and the time has come at last for us to retake our rightful place in the world! Aggro: * I'll split you from stem to stern! * Victory to Lord Illidan! * I spit on you, surface filth! * Death to the outsiders! Phase 1: * I did not wish to lower myself by engaging your kind, but you leave me little choice! Phase 2: * The time is now! Leave none standing! Phase 3: * You may want to take cover. Archery: * Straight to the heart! * Seek your mark! Slaying: * Your time ends now! * You have failed! Death: * Lord Illidan, I... I am... sorry. External links Category:Bosses Category:Instance:Serpentshrine Cavern